Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!qucdn!leek Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech Subject: RE: games & multitasking Organization: Queen's University at Kingston Date: Friday, 8 Jun 1990 13:19:52 EDT From: Message-ID: <90159.131952LEEK@QUCDN.BITNET> References: <1696@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca> In article <1696@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca>, lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) says: > >It's very easy to break hardware by pluggin in/unplugging an active circuit. >ake a look at the schematics one day, paying particular attention to where >these things attach to the chips (8520, Paula, etc.). Yeap. The other thing about the A500, A1000, A2000 is that these ports have virtually no protection against static electricity or short circuit. The pins goes directly into the chips without any clamping diodes and/or current limiting resistors. (Hope someone at C= do something about this in the future models.) The serial port is probably the only "safe" port to plug & unplug devices when the machine is on (if we ignored the other pins it also carries.) From a hardware point of view, I would say this form of software protection is a BIG NO-NO to do. Probably even worse if not on the same order of magnitude of potential damage to the user's machine with disk based portections. Expect a law suit from me if you did damage to my machine !! (The closest replacement is an A3000 in my case. :) > >-larry > >-- >The raytracer of justice recurses slowly, but it renders exceedingly fine. >+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ >| // Larry Phillips | >| \X/ lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca -or- uunet!van-bc!lpami!lphillips | >| COMPUSERVE: 76703,4322 -or- 76703.4322@compuserve.com | >+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ K. C. Lee